


When You Need an Arm (Lean on Me)

by InTheShadows



Series: WinterIron Week 2020 Fills [3]
Category: The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Bucky Barnes Is a Good Bro, Bucky Barnes's Metal Arm, Extremis Tony Stark, Gen, Gen or Pre-Slash, Helpful Bucky Barnes, Mild Hurt/Comfort, Platonic Cuddling, WinterIron Week 2020
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-15
Updated: 2020-12-15
Packaged: 2021-03-11 01:35:42
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,200
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28097031
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/InTheShadows/pseuds/InTheShadows
Summary: The first time it happens Bucky is pretty startled. It's not as if he and Stark are that close, for him to be suddenly attaching himself to Bucky's arm like that. But when it becomes apparent that extremis is the cause Bucky shrugs off the incident and moves on. Going by Stark's reaction, it's not as if he has to worry about it happening again, right?Wrong. Once is chance, twice is a coincidence, the third time is a pattern, after all. (They reach before three pretty quickly.)(Bucky doesn't mind. Hereallydoesn't.)Companion fic toLean on Me (When You Need an Arm).
Relationships: James "Bucky" Barnes & Tony Stark
Series: WinterIron Week 2020 Fills [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2066133
Comments: 4
Kudos: 144
Collections: WinterIron Week





	When You Need an Arm (Lean on Me)

**Author's Note:**

> For WinterIron Week, Day 1, Extremis Tony. This one is more comic book extremis (Because I still have more than one story for today. No I couldn't decide.)  
> Yes I am a savage with titles. Who allowed me this power?  
> The companion story exists in the same story, technically, but it isn't necessary to read both of them if you don't want to.

The first time it happens, Bucky isn’t sure what to think. He’s more startled than anything else. At first all he knows is that he walks into the room and suddenly something is attached to his arm. It takes everything in him not to attack. It’s more luck than anything that stops him, just for a split second. Just long enough to hear Steve’s shout of warning, to recognize the scent of the person holding him. 

Stark.

And since when does Bucky know Stark’s scent so well to recognize it on cue anyways? He puts it down to one of his now many quirks. Scent is one of the strongest senses of the body. Scent can be used when sight cannot. His leftover instincts from his murder doll days are pretty wild sometimes. 

But - he stops soon enough and looks down. It becomes fairly obvious almost instantly that Stark is checked out. His body may be there, but no one is home. That seems to be pretty typical of late, if the rest of the teams worried muttering has been anything to go by. 

Of course Bucky had been part of the rescue mission. He knows full well what happened to Stark, just like everyone else. But after he had been brought back, as safe as can be with an experimental serum running through his veins, Bucky had made himself scarce. He wasn’t needed anymore. What Stark needed, more than anything, was to feel safe. He wasn’t going to get that with Bucky hovering around him. 

Oh sure Stark never said he was afraid of Bucky. In fact he was the least likely one to do so. Stark is all bold words and big mouth on his best days and bold words and sharp tongue on his worst. Never has he been one to hold back. But that still doesn’t mean he is comfortable around Bucky. No one is. Even Stevie can get a little uneasy sometimes, when Bucky references HYDRA and his brainwashing too frankly. 

Thus this is the first Bucky has really seen Stark since everything. If the pale skin and empty eyes are anything to go by, he isn’t having an easy time of it. 

The others watch on, obviously worried about what he will do next. Waiting to see if he will lash out. Well, no, not now that he knows what is going on. Stark has done a lot for him since Bucky arrived. For one thing he opened his home to him - and if that had been the only thing, that would be big enough. But he also provided for Bucky, made sure he had clothes to wear, a roof under his head, gadgets and gizmos and anything else he could possibly ever want or think of. He had even worked on his arm for him. 

If Bucky can repay that in any way, he will. And if that repayment comes in the form of letting Stark hang on his arm? That is the least he can do. Carefully he maneuvers them both to the couch and settles in to wait. Who knows how long this is going to last. 

When Stark comes to it is instantly obvious. He tenses, shock and frustration written clearly on his face before he registers where he is. Then that frustration turns to embarrassment and the shock turns to panic. 

He flees the room. 

Bucky lets him. 

He knows well enough what it is like to wake up and find that your body has been moving around without your permission. That you have no control over yourself or your actions. He is _ intimately _ familiar with it. 

So he lets Stark flee and intends to never bring it up again. It is the least he can do. 

The second time it happens it is less of a shock, but no less of a surprise. He would have thought after the first time that Stark would avoid him like the plague. He  _ did _ . He avoided them all, not just Bucky. It only makes his misplaced shame that much more obvious. He has nothing to be ashamed of though. It’s not as if asked for this to happen to him any more than Bucky had. 

So yes, he never expected a repeat because he assumed Stark would take measures to make sure that it didn’t. Either he didn’t or they didn’t work. He is more prepared this time so he doesn’t startle when Stark latches onto him. 

He does when Stark makes an indecent noise when his head connects with the metal though. That sounds positively - well - the term pornographic comes to mind. Damn Barton and his ‘helpful’ suggestions. Bucky intends to pay him back for that one - thoroughly. 

It can’t be comfortable, but Stark doesn’t seem to mind. In fact he whines when Bucky tries to adjust him to a more comfortable position. Okay then, obviously this is how they are going to do it. Once more he moves them to the couch so Stark can stretch out, Bucky’s arm tightly in his grasp. 

By the third time he isn’t surprised at all. Clearly this is going to be a thing until Stark finally gets those fancy new powers of his under control. Bucky doesn’t mind. Sure, it’s a bit awkward, seeing that he and Stark aren’t that close. They get along fine, sure, but they hardly know each other at this point. And sure, Stark is still clearly embarrassed and frustrated by the entire thing. Who wouldn’t be, having their control taken away like that? It’s only natural. 

Stark has his fullest sympathies on the subject.

By now though, this isn’t just about Bucky paying him back. It has developed into more than that. Because as much as Stark may not like it, it obviously helps. It helps ground him, stopping that brilliant mind from getting lost. It helps the blinding migraines that he hasn’t confessed to getting yet. The arm helps.  _ Bucky _ helps. 

He would be lying if he said that isn’t extremely attractive. 

Bucky is able to help someone. The arm is able to be used for good, after years of being soaked in blood and pain. Bucky is still capable of doing good. 

More than that, he isn’t just helping, he is  _ needed. Essential _ . Someone that Stark depends on for relief. He finds that he likes being helpful. That the idea of someone needing him warms his stomach. He asks JARVIS to let him know if Stark ever needs him and doesn’t come to find him. It’s addictive, in its way. 

Stark is addictive. 

When he isn’t running away, the man is brilliant. Pure sass and goodness and intelligence itself. He takes Bucky’s breath away sometimes. The longer this goes on, the more Bucky is drawn to him. 

Until the days become weeks.

Until Stark becomes Tony. 

Until Bucky knows Tony better than he ever thought he would - ever thought he would deserve. But here they are. 

Extremis may have changed Tony’s life forever, but it also changed Bucky’s. It gave him this. And if that makes him selfish or greedy or bad for thinking it? He never claimed that he was a good man anymore. 


End file.
